Losin' My Religion

So, in a couple of hours, I will go to church for the first time in a long while. I don't know why it's been so long, but I am kind of excited to go. One of the interesting things about living in New York is that all of the ethnic and religious groups are represented in close proximity to one another. While I may live in a primarily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, I have managed to find an Irish-Catholic church. I actually found several, but this one is close by.

It's interesting to me how you can put several ethnicities in one hot bowl, and they will never melt. This is not a melting pot, it is (I think sociologists call it) a salad bowl. Also, I can move to New York, live with a Reform Jewish girl, live above a Lebanese, and live near Asians, Pakistanis, Russians, and Italians, but on Sundays, when I have every opportunity to spend my sacred time with a group that could challenge me, I have chosen to hang with the Irish Catholics. I think this says something about me, and I don't like what that is.

However, to be fair, the only Irish Catholics I know are my mom and dad, and my friend Erin. I have never been to an Irish Catholic church. I was hoping when I chose a church that I would find one with liberal politics, which is why I searched for names like "St. Patrick" and "St. Brigid". I have only had a couple of negative experiences going to church where the homilies were something I could not support, like restrictive reproductive rights. I don't really want to spend my time in a place like that. However, I keep hearing about Irish Catholics on the East Coast, and how different it is to Midwestern Catholics, so I am prepared for that too.

If it sucks terribly, I can always go to mass in Polish, so if the priest says something offensive, I won't know what it is anyway.